


the stories we found

by thescyfychannel



Series: as call the deeps [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-02-01 05:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12698088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/pseuds/thescyfychannel
Summary: seafaring songs and campfire stories—how else would our ancestors record the histories we can't remember on our own?





	the stories we found

**Author's Note:**

> _Found on a tablet in an old sea cave that was unburied by an earthquake, in the tenth sweep of )(er Imperial Radiance's reign._

"In the stories written on the clay of the ocean, there swam someone."

"This someone was Saoidh, Saoidh the Deeps, Saoidh the Archiver, Saoidh the scribe who kept the histories. He was a seadweller, bone and blood, fin and fair, and when he was called by his people, they called him Ampora."

"Saoidh swam too close to the surface, they said. But the surface called to the deeps, and Saoidh was the deeps, fin and fair, bone and blood. And when the seadwellers surfaced, they found the land. And when they found the land, they found the landdwellers."

"'We've come to claim this,' said the seadwellers who surfaced, the foremost of the tribes, the strongest, the fastest, the bravest, the best.

“'No,' said the landdwellers, 'it is ours.'

“And the seadwellers would not listen, and so there was a war."

"And the war was the psionics—the lightcallers, the sparkcatchers, the stormthrowers. The seadwellers were strong, and fast, and brave, but the psionics were the predators they had never truly known. Even the slightest spark set their hearts singing, called to them from ages and ages away."

"The seadwellers held fast. Held to their war. Held to their battle. Save for one. Save for Saoidh."

"Across the battlefield, a troll wreathed in sapphire and scarlet and gold called to him, in a language deeper than blood and bone, than fin and fair. And Saoidh answered. And Saoidh followed the troll, after a battle, deeper into the forest. He followed the psionic troll, the lightcaller, until the lightcaller caught him.

"'What do you want?' asked the psionic.

"And Saoidh poured out his heart, with everything in him, as a gift freely given. ‘Love,’ he said.

"'Then fight with me,' said the psionic.

"And Saoidh did. He turned traitor, he fought his own people, the ones he had trained with and talked with, the ones whose stories he had told, all for the love of the psionic. And the psionic, after a time, loved him in return."

"The landdwellers nearly won—but the infant in the deeps Spoke, upset at the loss of Her seadwellers, at the loss of their attention, at the loss of their care. It killed no one, but it rendered the warmest, the strongest, the psionics, useless, for a time.

"'Give this to us,' said the seadwellers, 'or we will let her continue.'

"And the landdwellers surrendered. Saoidh and his psionic vanished, like so much mist—into the woods, into the depths of the land. And they were together. And they were _happy_.

"After a time, as all times must pass, so did the psionic. The Gemini. The first psionic to capture a seadweller. Saoidh came back, and as his punishment, as his recompense, he was bound to the troll who could speak best to the creature of the deeps—to serve as her Orphaner, to serve her and her lusus, at her whims and commands. And for his crime, they bound all the rest of his line to the same fate."

"And the story was written on the clay of the ocean, as all of the stories are.”


End file.
